Ohio State mailbag: How do the Buckeyes compare to top teams?

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Land of 10 Ohio State mailbag to talk all things Buckeyes. This week, we’ll discuss how good Ohio State really is, wide receiver depth and Demario McCall.

Right to the point … I like it. Though it’s a simple question, it has a bit of a complicated answer (at least in my version).
As Ohio State fans have repeatedly pointed out to me, the last three games have come against Army, UNLV and Rutgers. As such,
a healthy dose of skepticism is probably required. However, most of the reactions I’ve seen have skipped straight to cynicism.
Here’s the thing, though: Bad teams don’t usually win 56-0 against Power 5 teams with the backups in for half the game. And
Ohio State has shown a more varied offense, better accuracy from J.T. Barrett and some improvements from wide receivers.

I don’t think anyone can look at what Alabama and Clemson have done in recent weeks and think the Buckeyes are there yet.
If that’s the bar, Ohio State is short of it and may stay that way all season. But to me, there’s no reason to look at the
growth from Oklahoma to Rutgers and think this team can’t become a Big Ten champion and playoff team. There’s work left to
be done, but it’s also clear that the Buckeyes are making progress.

Offense seems much better than the 2016 team, defense doesn't seem as strong yet; is the offensive improvement enough to beat
the top teams?

I know this is the opposite of what most people think, but I feel good about the Buckeyes’ chances against Penn State but
less so about Michigan right now. Trace McSorley doesn’t scare me (just look at the Iowa game), and the current recipe to
beat Ohio State’s defense is through the air. I’m pretty impressed with Michigan’s defense, however, and not entirely convinced
the Buckeyes will be able to avoid their weird tendency to go crazy conservative against top defenses. We’ll see, though.
Overall, what I said above applies here, too. This team is showing signs of being a conference champion and playoff contender
but isn’t all the way there yet.

How confident are you that Binjimen Victor and Johnnie Dixon can be the go-to redzone and deep threat receivers?

I’ve been beating the drum for Binjimen Victor to be a more prominent red-zone threat for a while now. He offers some things
that few else can, and I think the more experience he gets, the better he’ll be. He’s already showing really good signs with
impressive touchdown catches in each of the last two weeks.

As far as Johnnie Dixon goes, I’m a fan but I’m not sure his role would be clearly defined in either category. I see him more
as a receiver who can do a lot of different things but may not end up as the go-to in either department. He did show against
Rutgers that
he can haul in the deep ball, so that was encouraging.

He’s pretty good! I made the case on Saturday that
he should get some meaningful snaps so Ohio State can see what he can do with the first team and against first-team defenses. Apparently Urban Meyer isn’t quite
there yet as McCall continues to fight through a groin injury.

“He’s still not 100 percent,” Meyer said in his postgame press conference. “He’s got more in the tank than what I saw. That
one where he broke away, usually he’s out. We’re still fighting through that thing. But he’s doing a good job trying to fight
through it.”

Does OSU have a player on the roster not playing QB who would start at QB for Maryland right now?

As much as I’d love to say yes, I don’t think I can. I believe the only former high school quarterbacks on the team, other
than the actual quarterbacks, are safety Brendon White — who only played at that spot occasionally — and punter Drue Chrisman,
who never played again after having Tommy John surgery after his freshman season. So while the Terps are thin at quarterback,
they’re not
that thin.

I'm a Terps fan but it's ridiculous that my Terps are 31 Points dogs. This Maryland is being slept on I believe. Your thoughts?

I disagree, but that’s mostly because — as referenced above — Maryland is already on its third quarterback this season. The
win against Texas was good, but the Longhorns aren’t great. There’s a 38-10 loss to Central Florida on the resume, which isn’t
ideal no matter how good the Knights might actually be. And I’m not buying the win against Minnesota as a good one. The Gophers
are a bad team with a good record (and that second part is going to change pretty soon). Maryland is on the right track for
sure, but matching up with Ohio State is a massive challenge even before spotting them some quarterback injuries.

Why is Sean kicking? He was beat out by walk-ons couple of years in a row and now he can’t kick that deep and doesn’t have
the hang time.

Before I answer, I’ll just add that in another tweet Zach specified that he was referring to kickoffs. Sean Nuernberger never
kicked off in his Ohio State career, even when he handled field goals as a freshman in 2014. (That job went to a walk-on,
too.) I guess that tells you all you need to know about what Meyer thinks of Blake Haubeil’s execution thus far, but I think
such criticism has been a bit harsh. Was it bad enough for him to justifiably be replaced? I have my doubts, but I guess we’ll
see what happens on Saturday.

I’m not overly optimistic on that front. Ohio State has a ton of wide receivers with more experience and having two healthy
running backs might put receiver targets at even more of a premium. Whether he deserves to be out there more often is another
issue entirely, but I think recent history has shown it’s really hard for freshman wide receivers to see meaningful time at
Ohio State.

Why does osu seem to struggle so much bringing in new starters and any change at all. But bama/Clemson dont seem to skip a
beat even at qb?

Well, last year Ohio State replaced 16 starters, went 11-1 in the regular season and made the College Football Playoff, so
that was pretty good. Also, I’m not sure Alabama’s quarterbacks have ever been good before Jalen Hurts. It was more that they
were the same level of average and it was enough to get the job done with those running backs and that defense. It’s a credit
to Clemson, though, that Kelly Bryant has so seamlessly replaced Deshaun Watson. But Ohio State has had three defensive backs
drafted in back-to-back years, so it’s not like the Buckeyes aren’t replacing talent themselves.

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